I can see my breath when I go outside, I’ve had to scrape ice off of my car windows and I’ve cleared snow off of my front porch. This can only mean one thing – it’s that time of year again. It’s also time to list my favorite tech gadgets and games that I’ve been keeping an eye on this year and hope to play with come December 25.

ASUS Transformer Prime Tablet

When Amazon announced its Kindle Fire tablet in late September for $199, I was sure that that would be the tablet at the top of my Christmas list. The modest $199 price tag for features like a 7-inch IPS display, a 1 GHz Texas Instruments OMAP 4 dual-core processor, 8 GB of internal storage, 512 MB memory and a unique version of Android’s 2.3 Gingerbread operating system seemed pretty decent, but after looking at the Transformer Prime, I’ve decided to go for a full-featured tablet. Mainly, I need a camera and a microphone because I have family all over the globe and two of my close friends moved across the country, so Skype has become an essential part of catching up with one another. Kindle Fire lacks both a camera and a microphone.

The ASUS Transformer Prime also has some impressive specs compared to the likes of other Android-powered tablets and the iPad 2. It offers a 10-inch screen, NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core processor, 8 MP rear camera with a f/2.4 lens and back-illuminated sensor along with a 1.2 MP front-facing camera, 12-hour battery life, and Android’s 3.2 Honeycomb mobile operating system (which will be updated to Ice Cream Sandwich in early December).

The ASUS Transformer Prime Keyboard Dock adds a USB 2.0 port, a full-size Secure Digital slot and increases the battery life to 18 hours. I like the idea of transforming my tablet into a laptop if needed, since typing a message or document on a tablet screen can be a pain.

These aren’t brand new, and of course you could buy a plain 4 GB USB drive for much cheaper, but these are pretty awesome and are perfect presents for the "Star Wars" fans in your life. The available characters that I’ve seen are Storm Troopers, Darth Vader, Yoda, and Boba Fett. I’m partial to Yoda, but wouldn’t mind collecting them all.

Nikon announced the COOLPIX S6200 back in late August. It offers a 10x optical zoom, a pixel count of 16.0-million pixels, motion detection, flash control, special effects, filter effects, a battery life of 250 shots, NIKKOR lens 4.5-45.0mm (angle of view equivalent to that of 25-250mm lens in 35mm format), and a small, sleek body.

I’m not looking for a high-end camera, but I’m also not looking for anything cheap. The price is reasonable for what I’ll be using it for, which will mainly be trips, family get-togethers, and occasional videos.

For those of you who didn’t know, I’m a type 1 diabetic. I’ve been using insulin pens for my daily injections for a while now, but love reading about all the technological advances in diabetic medical devices. Right now, I’m waiting for the JewelPUMP to hit the U.S. The JewelPUMP is an insulin pump made by Debiotech, which is a developer of medical devices from Lausanne, Switzerland. It’s a small, disposable patch pump that can carry up to 400 units of insulin. It’s much more comfortable and discreet than most pumps, and uses a futuristic microfluidic MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical System) that puts all the “brains” on one small chip.

Here’s what’s really cool about the pump: it does not require a separate controller unit. Instead, an Android-powered cell phone can be used to control the pump. A controller app with a bolus wizard and correction wizard are available right on your Android phone, and a secret PIN is required to access it. Once the app is opened via the correct PIN, the phone goes into “Pump Mode” and you can no longer send or receive calls/texts/emails. You must exit Pump Mode to get back to your other phone features.

I’ve placed this particular device under the “Potential Gift” category because it is currently undergoing FDA approval before it can be released in the U.S. It was predicted that it would be approved by mid-2011, then new reports indicated late 2011. I’m not sure if it will be available by Christmas, and I certainly wouldn’t expect my family members to pay for what I assume will be an expensive piece of equipment as my Christmas present, but it would definitely be a helpful Christmas present from myself. If any of you are diabetic or know someone who is, this is definitely worth looking into at some point in the future, if not the holiday season.

400 units is a week's worth of insulin for the average type 1. 2-3 weeks worth for some. Easily fatal, and fairly quickly unless it's caught soon AND is pretty slow acting insulin (pumps usually use fast acting insulin).

At my insulin to carb ratio (varies per person), counteracting a dose of 400 units would require ingesting 4 kg of pure sugar, or taking several glucagon shots.

If it was hacked to not deliver insulin, it would be noticed in a few hours, unless they were able to hack the blood sugar monitoring device as well, and those must be calibrated regularly with old-fashioned finger sticks. It would be treated as a malfunction and the user would switch to his/her backup treatment regiment, which is bothersome but unlikely to be a medical emergency.